A TIME OF DAY

Another fine album from one of the most underrated, underappreciated, and sadly unprolific groups around: A Time of Day delivers the goods with Anekdoten's signature sound of heavy/light contrasts, savage gusto, sweeping mellotron, and energetic melodies-- this is great stuff!

With A Time of Day, the group's songwriting tip-toes into more accessible formats, with many strongly performed, catchy choruses and big instrumental melodies. There's still that dark, brooding energy which Anekdoten fans adore, but this time it's tempered a bit by the likeability of the songs-- as well as Barker's improved (and much more prevalent) singing voice, which comes close to crooning here and there. The first three songs are a pure joy, with Great Unknown starting things off with a heavy, bass-led riff giving way to vocal shout choruses, background flutes (great!), and a general feeling of excitement. The cynical 30 Pieces follows up with even more flute, inclusion of piano, and extended instrumental passages only to give way to King Oblivion-- a short, atmospheric jam song. Lyrically evocative and sonically dynamic, there's a lot to like here, and the enjoyment only deepens during multiple listens.

By this time I can almost guarantee that new listeners will fall in love with this band, and if not the gentle vibraphone interlude to Sky About to Rain will cinch the deal. In general the album has a more tender, thoughtful feel to it than their previous works, but is nonetheless an outstanding example of their songwriting and instrumental proficiency; I have yet to find a group that is as consistantly good as Anekdoten. Highly, highly recommended for a variety of listeners!

Songwriting: 4 Instrumental Performances: 4 Lyrics/Vocals: 4 Style/Emotion/Replay: 4